National Museum of Australia

Collection Explorer

Lens

1986.0095.0024.090.A

Lens

Physical description

A "spherical convex" round clear glass optometrist's lens. The lens has a white metal rim and a small metal handle stamped "1.50", attached to the rim.

Statement of significance

The Gweneth Meyers collection consists of material from the radio communications interests of the donor's husband Morris Henry Meyers OBE, and optometrist equipment and a telescope used by Gweneth Meyers' grandfather, Llewellyn Preston Williams, a pharmacist who migrated to Australia from England in 1890. The collection includes a wireless transmitter and receiver used by Meyers in his ham radio work, QSL cards from his radio communications, and photographs of Meyers with the equipment.

Interested in electronics and communications from an early age, Morris 'Morrie' Meyers was licenced as an amateur radio operator from the early 1930s. Meyers' skill and interests lead to his election to the Fine Operators Club and the AI Operators Club, and membership with the Institution of Radio and Electronics Engineers Australia and the Wireless Institute of Australia, in which he also served as president and executive member. He served with the RAAF Wireless Reserve, and was sent to Borneo, New Guinea and other sites in the Pacific region, being commissioned in 1941 and after rising to the rank of Wing Commander was awarded the Order of the British Empire. After the war, Meyers began a career with Qantas as Communications and Electronics Manager.